


Janiris

by ms45



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-28 05:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/670558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ms45/pseuds/ms45
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liara has a proposition for Miranda.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

The guest waiting at the apartment door wasn't who Miranda was expecting.

“Where's Shepard?”

“He's having lunch with Kaidan. I wanted to catch you in private. Can I come in? There's a salarian here giving me some very dirty looks.”

Miranda opened the door, after first stepping to one side and hiding her pistol in the small of her back. The fact that the current Shadow Broker lacked the obvious brashness of an Aria T'loak just made her more dangerous. And here she was, her sweet little face noticing the gun and looking shocked, then sad, then understanding in the space of a couple of seconds.

“Doctor T'Soni. A pleasure, as always.”

Liara looked around at the sparse apartment. Miranda had always struck her as the kind of person who genuinely liked minimalist décor, but this was less minimalist and more brutalist. Liara sympathised – the data she had on Henry Lawson did indicate that he was worse than Miranda was willing to discuss, even with Shepard.

“I brought you something. I thought you might need it.” Liara held out a small black box, the size of a single shotgun cartridge.

Miranda took it, slowly. She had no reason to think Liara was up to anything, but being on the run had turned her already well-developed caution to paranoia. After all, she had thought the Illusive Man was on her side, right up until she discovered that he had her father back on the Cerberus payroll. The package weighed almost nothing. She opened the end flap and peered into the box. Squinting, not quite believing her eyes, she pulled out the bullet-shaped object.

“Lipstick?”

Miranda stared at the little object as Liara clasped her hands and shifted from foot to foot.

“I'm being hunted by my father and Cerberus and my home planet is being consumed by Reapers and you thought I needed fucking _lipstick_??!” Liara met her eyes steadily.

“Yes. Lipstick is exactly what I thought you needed.”

Miranda slumped onto the bed, holding the lipstick like a talisman. Tears formed in her eyes and she opened them extra wide in the vain hope of preventing them falling. Liara didn't know where to look, so she went to the window and stared out over the Citadel, shoppers and strollers still oblivious to the creatures ripping up entire planets only a relay or two away.

Finally, Liara heard Miranda say “Thank you. It’s my favourite brand.” As she turned around, the human was smiling, albeit with wet eyes. “And look. It’s called Head Bitch In Charge. Cute.”

“Do you need anything? Any information, I mean. I probably shouldn’t load you up with toiletries.”

“I do… but I need Alliance resources. That’s why I need to see Shepard. If you hear anything, though… I’ll accept anything you can give me.”

Liara nodded. She looked at her hands, then her feet, then out the window. Miranda was now looking at her expectantly.

“I… didn’t come here to give you a present. I … have a proposition for you.”

Miranda tucked the lipstick away somewhere. “I’m not sure I can do much for you in the current circumstances, but go ahead.”

Liara had thought carefully about what she was about to say, and was still not certain that what she had done and was about to do was right. She took a deep breath and braced her stomach.

“The Shadow Broker had extensive files on you - on all of Shepard’s companions. He didn’t get to be the galaxy’s most notorious information broker by being a slouch.” Miranda’s face hardened. “And I didn’t get to replace him by being queasy about my sources. So, uh, I know quite a lot about you. And your personal history.”

Coolly, Miranda replied “You have a doctorate in Prothean History from the University of Serrice. You were uni champion of Serrice’s pistol shooting squad and your dump subject was Research Methods and Accountability. Your first car was a pink Elkoss Boro R2 which you named Amalia. You like weepy human dramas, retro acoustic music and you have a thing for males with green eyes. You made advances on Shepard and he knocked you back.” She raised her eyebrows and smiled stiffly. “Your turn.”

Liara gasped a little bit, then frowned. “I’m not here to threaten you! It’s just that… the Broker had your medical records.”

The room gained a layer of frost. “Your point?”

Liara took a deep breath. “In 2180 you approached a fertility centre on Ilium in the hope of conceiving a child. They advised you would not be successful.”

Miranda’s face warned of terrible consequences if Liara were to continue.

“Miranda, I – I’ve rehearsed this a hundred times and it always sounds terrible. I want you to father my child.”

Whatever Miranda had been expecting, that wasn’t it. Liara began to explain further, just a bit too quickly.

“I know it seems like dreadful timing but there may _be_ no other time! I’m currently working on the most high tech ship in the galaxy, probably the safest place in the galaxy. ” She began pacing, waving her arms in huge circles, so unlike her normal self. “I have Reapers looming over my home planet, I don't have my own home, I don't have _time_ to date anyone, even if I wasn't so inexperienced. And it's not as if birthrates don't go up in wartime, they just rise more slowly. We're going to need - “

“You looked at my _fertility records_?!” snarled Miranda, tears pricking at her eyes. It wasn't entirely logical – as Miranda had just demonstrated, they probably had about the same amount of dirt on each other – but Miranda needed an excuse for bloodrage, and here was a perfect one. “Did you miss the part of my history where everything I've done, everything I've ever achieved was to advance _humanity_?”

Liara blinked. “No, but - “

“I've worked my whole life to ensure that humanity doesn't become a client race to a bunch of strippers and mercs.” Liara flinched. This was grossly unfair, and Miranda knew it, but blue mist was starting to shimmer around her, and the rush felt so, so good. “Even if Udina turned out to be a prick, we earned our place in the galaxy when we saved your miserable fucking Council. And you fucking waltz in here all high and mighty like I should be _honoured_ to help you breed more Asari - “

“It's not like that!” protested Liara. “You see the vids coming from Earth, they're awful! The child would be Asari, yes, but she'd have human DNA! She'd - “

“She'd have my _father's_ DNA.” With that, Miranda unleashed the throw she'd been building up ever since Liara gave her the lipstick. Liara was ready, and countered with her own barrier. They pushed furiously against each other, the human glistening with sweat, until finally the biotics burst, throwing them both to opposite sides of the room.

Liara rolled onto her front to push herself upright, and staggered to her feet. “Fine. I shouldn't have pried. I'm sorry.” She limped to the door and pressed the button. As she stepped out, she turned.

“I'm not the only one Shepard knocked back.”

With that, the door closed smoothly behind her. As Miranda hurled herself at the door, banging her fists on it as it locked against her, she could hear Liara break into a run down the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

Miranda felt herself to have recovered from the ordeal with her father, but Huerta Memorial insisted on keeping her under observation despite her protests. She had tried to leave, but to her surprise and disgust, collapsed in the elevator, bringing a cluster of fussy aliens who wrapped her in blankets and covered her in pegs and pins and monitors and “how many fingers am I holding up?”. So she lay in bed, despite the fact that she was clearly just  _fine_ , and amused herself by making the monitors loop wildly from one extreme to another. When an intern brought around a card for her to mark her meals on, she crossed out “poached fruit” and “white bread” and wrote in BELUGA CAVIAR and CHAMPAGNE.

They brought her poached fruit and white bread.

Oriana had visited, bringing copies of _Foreign Affairs_ and Earth _Vogue_ , and Shepard had swept through leaving a hefty edition of _Art Today_ with a 20 page feature on Forta. She had blitzed through all of the reading material, and now had far too much time to think about herself, without being actually able to do anything. A salarian by the name of Jondum Bau occasionally poked his head in, advising that he was a friend of Shepard and had been instructed to keep an eye on her. He didn’t say, but it was pretty obvious that he was STG.

Miranda was on the verge of setting the sheets on fire when a phone call came through. “Ms Lawson? I have a Doctor T’Soni in the lobby to see you. Are you accepting visitors?”

Miranda looked down at herself. Her genetically perfect body still responded to its environment - currently, it was thin and scaly, her hair lank, her nails bitten down to nothing. A long grey thread stretched across her bed where she’d pulled it out from the sheer, mind-crushing boredom.

She sighed. “Send her in.”

Liara peeked into the doorway. Miranda was fidgeting angrily with the thin, crappy blanket. The asari slipped into the room and sat quietly by the bed. They sat like that for a good while, both concentrating intently on Miranda’s patient deconstruction of the blanket.

_Rrrrrrrrrriiiiiippp_

The string got longer and longer.

_Rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiipppppp_

Eventually, someone spoke.

“What would I have to do?”

Liara startled at that. She’d had a brave speech prepared about how difficult this must be, how sorry she was for prying into her personal affairs, and how she hoped they could continue to work together. She’d assumed that Miranda’s refusal was final, and had been frantically compiling lists of potential fathers, but hadn’t approached anyone. For all that the Normandy was a massive vessel, it wasn’t massive enough to contain the blowback if her offer wasn’t accepted and gossip got around that Dr. T’Soni was was trying to “embrace eternity” with everyone on the damn ship.

“Oh. Er, well, it’s not like you – er – it’s more like – um – “

“I don’t have to shag you, you mean.”

“No! No, it’s like… the closest I can describe it in human terms is meditation. You really wouldn’t have to do anything.”

Miranda snapped the string from the blanket, making it spring into tiny coils. “And tell me, what are your plans for this child?” Even without makeup and wearing a hospital dickie, she was still intimidating.

Words caught in her throat as Liara tried to speak. Did Miranda know what had happened on Thessia? Probably – there were news reports blaring all over the hospital. She opened her mouth to say something sensible, perhaps about how she was a qualified teacher and had contacts on many asari planets. Instead, a choked hiss emerged from her throat, and her face strained with the effort not to cry. Tears streamed silently down her face as she struggled to collect herself. Finally, Miranda reached over and took her hand. This somehow made it worse, and Liara broke into loud, ugly sobs. She put her head down and cried into their hands.

Eventually, she was too tired to continue. Miranda waved at a box of tissues on the side table and Liara took a handful of them, patting her face dry. As she did so, Miranda asked again, “Your plans?”

Liara looked at her sharply. Miranda met her gaze with equal steel. “You wouldn’t have asked if you didn’t think there was hope we were going to win. Therefore, you must have plans.”

Taking a deep breath, Liara admitted “I don’t have detailed plans. Asari breastfeed, so I can minimize the impact on the Normandy’s resources in the initial stages. And we’re taught at home from an early age, so I can take care of basic education. A number of asari colonies are still holding out – Illium keeps taking out the Reaper troop ships to eliminate husks, so they just have to deal with the Reapers themselves. I sold the apartment when I got the Shadow Broker’s ship, but… We’ll just see what happens, I guess.” Then, she thought of something. “Do you even  _want_  extensive plans? Your father controlled every aspect of your life. Surely you don’t want to pass that on?”

Miranda flinched for the briefest of moments, but replied “I don’t like the idea of you deciding to breed in the middle of an all out war because you panicked and thought the asari were going to be totally wiped out. What would my role in all this be? Am I to be an absentee father?”

“No! Well… what  _are_  your plans? I suppose you still have to avoid Cerberus.”

“I’m still committed to the interests of humanity, Liara. That wouldn’t change.”

“But that’s fine! Asari represent themselves on all kinds of worlds. You can represent for humanity without being an ass about it. Your organisation and leadership skills are unequalled – you could be a diplomat, even a Councillor.”

Miranda smiled coldly. “I’m not exactly Miss Popularity with council races or the Alliance, Liara. So not only do I still have to avoid Cerberus assassins, I’m well-served to avoid law enforcement here. As it is I’m only protected here because I’m a friend of Commander Shepard.” She waved at Jondum Bau through the internal window. He waved stiffly and turned away. “As soon as they let me out of here I’ll have to find a safe house of some kind.”

“So you couldn’t join us on the Normandy?”

“Tempting… but no. I wouldn’t have the resources to send you money regularly, either. That’s taking some getting used to.” Miranda shuddered. She was used to budgeting tightly, but with billions of dollars for huge, complex projects, not scrimping to buy protein paste at an autovendor while switching from one refugee ship to another.

“That’s… not what I wanted from you. You can be as involved as you want. Or not.”

“So why did you ask me?”

Liara was silent.

“You asked because you thought you were my only chance. And I’m accepting because you’re probably right.” It was Miranda’s turn to choke back a sob.


	3. Chapter 3

“Find me some music, Glyph. Something appropriate for meditation.”

Liara had spent the morning fussing over her room in Shepard's fancy Citadel apartment, puffing up the pillows and turning down the crisp black 800-thread-count sheets, opening every cupboard in the hope of finding some nice candles or scented oils, adjusting the lighting to something pleasant but not eye-straining, even pulling down a painting from the stairwell to position in the centre of the wall. Shepard was a man of simple tastes, to say the least, and Liara had had to order out to get some flowers and a couple of decent bottles of wine. The stuff left over from the party could best be described as “cheap and cheerful”.

Glyph obliged by playing some awful, tinny pseudo-human file it had obviously downloaded from the first extranet hit on “meditation music”. A hanar voice droned over the tuneless 'music'. “Contemplating the Enkindlers... the miracles of the Enkindlers reveal themselves to the humble penitent...”

“Oh goddess, Glyph, something _nice_.”

“I require more information, Doctor T'Soni.”

“Something that doesn't have a voiceover. And uses pre-digital instruments. Um. Try a search on 'human classical music'.”

Glyph blinked for a couple of seconds, then began playing a slow, sweet tune using some kind of air instrument. Liara nodded, pleased, and set about trying to mix the Thessian lakeflower oil with the Terran Lavender oil in a way that wouldn't be too overwhelming.

After a while, the oil heating to her satisfaction, she decided she liked Glyph's selection. “This is lovely, Glyph. What is it?”

“20th century Earth composition. John Coltrane, saxophonist and composer.”

“It's beautiful. Please find more like it.”

Glyph blinked away, happily following endless threads on ever-finer subdivisions of music styles.

* * * * *

“You're... wearing a dress.”

Miranda looked down at herself. “Yes.”

“I've never seen you in a dress.”

“I don't … usually ...”

In offering to have Miranda's child, Liara had approached Miranda in the spirit of friendship – as a human who for some reason couldn't have children of her own, as a person whom Liara had worked with and knew to be intelligent, determined, disciplined, yet principled, as a person who had also lost her homeworld and knew what it was to be isolated.

She swore she had _not_ chosen Miranda because of her “great rack”.

Apparently, she had more in common with her father than she realised.

Miranda and Liara gawped at each other awkwardly, each clutching a gift – expensive, handmade chocolates for Liara, a wrapped box for Miranda. Liara stuck out the box abruptly, and Miranda stuck out her gift, and after a few seconds they worked out that they should swap. Miranda tore into the wrapping paper and pulled out a printed book.

“ _Across the Universe: Stories of Successful Cross-Species Families_... Thank you. You may be underestimating my ability to cope with the idea of an Asari daughter, but... case studies are always good.”

“I wasn't -”

“It's _fine_ , Liara. Thank you. You should put those chocolates on a bench so they can soften up.”

Liara looked at the box – Ponsardin of Bekenstein, the really good stuff. “Not in the fridge?”

“No! … sorry, you want the centres to soften up. You'll thank me later.”

“I think I will. Would you like a glass of wine? I sent out for champagne.”

Miranda, whose face had been morphing into a polite but horrified refusal, relaxed visibly. “You don't have to get me drunk. I know what I'm here for. But yes, I'd love a glass.”

They both moved towards to the kitchen, Liara waving at the glasses cupboard whilst opening the fridge. “Of course. But this shouldn't be a cold blooded business deal. Think of it as a celebration of human-asari cooperation.”

She poured them both a glass, honey and melon scents tickling their noses, and they saluted human-asari co-operation. Miranda took a sip, and after letting out a satisfied “Mmmmm”, her face took on an expression Liara couldn't read.

“Happy memories, I hope?”

Miranda smiled bitterly. “I turned 21 at the same time I graduated from uni – about the same age you are now, I suppose, maybe a bit younger. I didn't really have any friends, and my father took me to the finest restaurant in Brisbane and bought me a glass of 2130 Krug. Then he sat there and tore apart my grades, grilling me on why I only scored 98% in biomed, and why did I only have a Grade I distinction for Organisational Theory.”

“Oh.” Liara looked stricken. Sympathise? Ask questions? Change the subject? “My grandfather was a krogan.” _Brilliant_.

Miranda's face went through a number of subtle morphs before settling into a more genuine smile. “Do you think he was an Urdnot?”

“I don't think so. My dad's been watching me pretty much forever – at least since Benezia joined Saren, anyway. Surely she would have mentioned it if my grandfather was related to _both_ of the Krogan in my life.”

“Maybe you should ask Wrex to be part of Clan Urdnot. He accepted Grunt, and he's tank-bred. You're naturally Krogan.”

"Um," said Liara, slurping the last of her champagne. "Do you want to -"

"Yes, let's get on with it," said Miranda. She stood with her hands at her sides, almost to attention. "What do I do?"

Asari did not blush, but Liara looked at her feet. "I, um, I set up the bedroom. So it would be comfortable. Melding minds is quite draining, sometimes people faint." She peeked at Miranda, but the human just said "Lead the way."

In the bedroom, Miranda looked around at the decor Liara had so carefully put together. "Nice," she said. "Wasn't that painting in the stairwell before?" At Liara's stuttered excuses, she waved dismissively. "Where do you want me?"

Liara had thought it through a hundred times. "Sit on the bed in a lotus position. Um, you might like to kick your shoes off." Miranda easily slipped off her simple (but expensive) mules, leaving Liara to hop about pulling off her boots. Finally, the asari crawled on the bed and twisted herself into a half-lotus position in front of Miranda, who had effortlessly crossed her legs over each other and was holding her hands in the Jnana Mudra gesture. 

"OK. You need... we both need to be very relaxed." Liara put out her arms and held her fingers a centimetre from Miranda's neck as Glyph adjusted the music volume to be barely perceptible. Static flickered between them. 

"You are in a safe space," Liara said. Miranda's eyes dilated, her expression doubtful. Slightly disconcerted, Liara pressed on. "In the season of Janiris, we celebrate renewal and growth. Ground and sky open to bring forth new life, combining water, air and earth. In this meeting of minds, we too create new life from unique principles. Open to the universal imperative of life, and _embrace eternity_.”

_Blackness._

_Then, a feeling of tension, as if walking a tightrope. Fleeting feelings of success and satisfaction snatched away by disappointment and derision. An almost unfelt sense of unease lurking under every feeling and action._

_And in brief, rare bursts, quick splashes of happiness, exploding and disappearing as fast as they appeared._

_Admiration and affection gave way to humiliation, which faded to disgust, contempt and ridicule._

_But above it all flew a bright, shining ribbon, its perfectly trimmed tail jumping and weaving just out of reach._

Miranda tore herself from the meld’s grasp – an agonising wrench that would have required immense strength.

“I didn’t know you’d – “ she gasped, betrayal in her eyes.

“Miranda, there’s nothing to be – “

But the human shoved herself off the bed, waving Liara away, and ran out of the room without even taking her shoes.

Liara thought perhaps she had retreated to a bathroom to have a cleansing cry, and gave her some space – she herself was reeling from the invasive procedure, and could see the value of some alone time. But when she stepped out of the room to check on her, Miranda was nowhere to be found. Glyph brightly informed her that Miranda had left the apartment. 

**Author's Note:**

> From the Mass Effect wiki:   
> The asari celebrate the springtime fertility ritual Janiris, which marks the start of the new year. During this time, they create wreathes of flowers and distribute them among their friends and loved ones. As is the case with the holidays of some other Citadel species, the celebration of Janiris has been adopted by other species that operate in Citadel Space.


End file.
